1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electronic packages, and, more particularly, to an electronic package having an antenna structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the rapid development of electronic industries, wireless communication technologies have been widely applied in various kinds of consumer electronic products for receiving or transmitting various wireless signals. To meet the miniaturization requirement of consumer electronic products, wireless communication modules are becoming lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller. For example, patch antennas have been widely applied in wireless communication modules of electronic products, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), due to their advantages of small size, light weight and easy fabrication.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional wireless communication module 1. The wireless communication module 1 has a packaging substrate 10, a plurality of electronic elements 11 disposed on and electrically connected to the packaging substrate 10, an antenna structure 12 disposed on the packaging substrate 10, and an encapsulant 13. The packaging substrate 10 is a rectangular circuit board. The antenna structure 12 is of a planar type and has an antenna body 120 and a conductive wire 121 electrically connecting the antenna body 120 and the electronic elements 11. The encapsulant 13 encapsulates the electronic elements 11 and a portion of the conductive wire 121.
However, during the fabrication process of the wireless communication module 1, the antenna body 120 of the antenna structure 12 cannot be integrally fabricated with the electronic elements 11 due to the characteristic of electromagnetic radiation between the antenna structure 12 and the electronic elements 11 and the size limitation of the planar-type antenna structure 12. As such, the electronic elements 11 are encapsulated by the encapsulant 13, while the antenna body 120 of the antenna structure 12 is exposed from the encapsulant 13. Therefore, the packaging process for forming the encapsulant 13 needs a mold having a size corresponding to the electronic element-mounting area instead of the overall size of the packaging substrate 10, thus adversely affecting the packaging process.
Further, since the surface of the packaging substrate 10 needs an additional area for the antenna body 120 to be disposed therewithin (i.e., an area where the encapsulant 13 is not to be formed), the size of the packaging substrate 10 and thus the size of the wireless communication module 1 are increased. Consequently, the wireless communication module 1 cannot meet the miniaturization requirement.
Therefore, how to overcome the above-described drawbacks has become critical.